What is Foster Care?
• For many teenagers, foster care is a temporary option to a difficult and upsetting home life and an alternative to living in an institute or residence. For many young people foster care is their only hope.
• Foster care provides the stability of a substitute home for a few days, weeks, or years. The average length of stay in foster care is six months.
• In some cases, teenagers return to their primary parents. Others remain in care until they are adults.

Why Do Teenagers Come into Care?
• Some teenagers find they cannot cope with living at home and have sought help. Some have emotional problems, have been abused or neglected, or have problems with alcohol or drugs. Others have been in trouble with the law.

What Are the Options?
• When teenagers seek the help of, or are referred to the CAS of Algoma, they are interviewed and assessed before placement. Sometimes parent-child conflicts can be worked out while the teenager continues to live in the home. For those with serious emotional, drug or alcohol problems or those who have been in trouble with the law, or have been abused or neglected, a group home or institute setting would be considered.

The Rewards of Fostering Teenagers!
• People become foster parents to teenagers for many reasons. Watching a troubled youth turn around and become a responsible adult is a very special reward to many. Others enjoy the companionship of a teenager. Some parents prefer to foster teens because they find them easier to relate to. Some started out fostering younger children several years ago and are now interested in fostering teenagers.
• Many remember their own teen years and realize that a number of conflicts and problems during that stage in life are quite normal and as a result they wish to provide a smooth transition from home to dependence to living on one’s own as an adult.

Teenagers have Special Needs!
• Those between the ages of 13 to 18 require different types of foster homes than younger children. While some may be upset by the separation from their parents, others actually find that the separation helps them to get along better with the primary parents.
• Teenagers have had time to establish their own way of doing things. Foster parents should recognize this and be willing to enter a “give and take” relationship with them.
• Teenagers in foster care may not be looking for the traditional parent-child relationship. They may want adult support and guidance in decision-making and may need help in gaining self-confidence.

House Rules!
• It is important for both foster parents and foster teenagers to openly discuss their views on morals and personal behaviour. Foster parents and teenagers need to agree on rules for smoking, drinking, dating, curfews and responsibility for the care of their own room. The child protection counselor is available to assist in these discussions.
• Some teens need guidance in order to improve their judgment of right or wrong. They may, for example, think that stealing a car is a crime, but shoplifting a lipstick is O.K.